Author Profile: Carl Hiaasen

A Florida journalist whose novels tend to mirror his concerns about the world and his home state, Hiaasen has been writing since the early 1980s. His first novel, Powder Burn (written with Bill Montalbano), thrusts the reader headlong into drug cartel and murder scandals, and the rest of his solo books, mostly thrillers, do the same. A little known fact – Hiaasen also wrote the book that became the movie Striptease with Demi Moore and Burt Reynolds.

Tourist Season
Hiaasen’s first solo novel features a man who goes swimming and returns in a suitcase, missing his legs and with a few nasty surprises, too. Private Eye Brian Keyes discovers that the dead man was the president of the Miami Chamber of Commerce – and that he was likely killed by a group of anti-tourist terrorists!
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Naked Came the Manatee
A book written by 13 different Miami-based authors starting with Dave Barry and ending with Carl Hiaasen, Naked Came the Manatee was printed as a serial novel in the Miami Herald’s Tropic magazine. Played like the literary game “Exquisite Corpse” or “Telephone,” the story twists, turns, murders, and beheads a wild cast of characters, not least of all is a manatee named “Booger.”
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Hoot
Hiaasen’s first young adult novel, Hoot tells the tale of Roy Eberhardt, a new kid at a middle school in Coconut Grove, Florida. He discovers, oddly enough, through being bullied, that there are endangered owls whose home will soon be built over by a pancake house. With help from tough girl Beatrice, Roy tries to save the owls. Like most of Hiaasen’s novels, there is a heavy focus on environmentalism.

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Skinny Dip
A satirical crime novel involving a pollution scam, an attempted murder, and a former swimming champ wife, Skinny Dip once again features recurring character Mick Stranahan, an ex-cop who first appeared in Hiaasen’s Skin Tight.
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Thanks to CB for this author suggestion!